FIFA is not inclined to wait ... https://wtop.com/asia/2019/07/fifa-seeks-quick-expansion-of-womens-world-cup-to-32-teams/ "FIFA is asking its ruling council to fast-track expansion of the next Women’s World Cup to 32 teams" .... "Nine FIFA member federations are preparing to submit formal plans for a 24-team tournament by October. They are: Argentina, Australia, Brazil, Bolivia, Colombia, Japan, New Zealand, South Africa and South Korea, which could bid with North Korea. FIFA now wants to modify the process in August by asking the nine federations to confirm interest in a 32-team tournament, and inviting other federations to enter. If council members agree to the expansion by next week, FIFA suggests they would pick the host next May instead of March as previously scheduled."
See above, looks like re-bids are in order. News bits:https://t.co/mbVJJ89p03 - FIFA wants to fast track expanding the WWC to 32 teams. This would re-open bidding for the tournament, with final decision not expected until May.— Chris Henderson (@chris_awk) July 26, 2019
Adding 8 more teams to this year's World Cup would have meant adding the (likely) following teams: UEFA: Switzerland, Denmark, Belgium CAF: Mali AFC: Philippines CONCACAF: Panama CONMEBOL: Colombia +1 more from either CONCACAF or CONMEBOL.
Yes, they were 4th in the Cup of Nations this cycle. The three additions from UEFA seem like they wouldn't be too overmatched in the existing WWC'19 crowd. But the CAF and AFC extras would get creamed, as would the extra C'CAF/C'BOL playoff team, and I wouldn't put a ton of money into the direct C'CAF or C'BOL additions. All the more reason to not expand yet.
Expanding to 32 teams for 2023 would see a lot more 13-0 blowouts. Just a way for FIFA to make more money while struggling nations refuse to add money for their women's programs.
This would only allow an elite of countries to organize a tournament with so many countries ...I think I miss Herr Blatter
They could have more dual hosts in future - presuming the women's world champions still won't automatically qualify. But it's typical Fifa, rushing ahead. Last year they announced and dropped a plan to expand the 2022 men's World Cup. They might drop this too, maybe if the bidders are against it. We all do. You wouldn't see Blatter's colleagues getting detained by police like this ... (*oh, wait) https://www.bbc.com/sport/football/48673461 https://www.bigsoccer.com/threads/fifa-vice-president-detained-by-french-authorities.2104248/
And less than a week later, it's official: we're expanding to 32 for 23. https://www.bbc.com/sport/football/49184181 Bad decision IMO - or, rather, an eventually good decision made clearly a cycle too early.
With Australia or Japan as host. Host(1): Australia/Japan UEFA(12) AFC(5) CONCACAF(4.5) CONMEBOL(3.5) CAF(4) OFC(1): New Zealand
Bidding for a FIFA event is a waste of money for us. FIFA has shown no interest in coming here in the past for anything. There are a lot better things that we can spend the money on.
This FIFA Women’s World Cup bidding process is becoming a joke. First of all, they should’ve selected the next host nation months before the last World Cup, not 11 months after.
And now they are 10.... Argentina Australia Belgium Bolivia Brazil Columbia Japan South Korea (joint with North Korea) New Zealand South Africa
So it's officially a joint Korea bid? I'm sure that looks appealing from a "global goodwill" facade, but I bet it'd be disastrous organizationally. Would love to see NZL or a C'BOL team win hosting. BEL and RSA would be fun as well.
So you’re more concern about blowouts than help encourage girls to compete and play football by expanding the field to 32 teams?
You have to strike a balance between competitiveness and openness. Not enough on the former and too much on the latter leads to "let's turn the WWC into a KO tournament with EVERY nation everywhere!". Slippery slope argument, I know, but I'm exaggerating for a point - don't expand for the sake of expanding. It's great to expand the tournament's horizons in due time, but my concern is that the expansion to 24 hasn't matured yet. We still had a large number of debuting teams in 2019, so clearly the tournament is still pretty open in terms of qualification opportunity.
I get it. I get your personal take. It is not a perfect formula. Soccer or sports is not perfect as much as life is in general. However, I think that expanding the field to 32 will do more good than harm. If it means more blowouts, let it come. Athletes can learn and succeed tremendously through trials of fire if you have the right mentality.
If New Zealand were to host, does OFC get an automatic birth? Could someone like Papua New Guinea actually qualify?
Or Fiji who are starting to improve, FIFA can mix it up and give 0.5 places to OFC alongside NZL if they get it...